City Commission discusses the paving of Fourth and Fifth avenues

The El Dorado City Commission discussed the paving of Fourth and Fifth avenues during their last meeting.

Comment

By Julie Clements

Butler County Times Gazette

By Julie Clements

Posted Apr. 23, 2013 at 8:36 AM
Updated Apr 23, 2013 at 8:38 AM

By Julie Clements

Posted Apr. 23, 2013 at 8:36 AM
Updated Apr 23, 2013 at 8:38 AM

El Dorado, Kan.

The El Dorado City Commission discussed the paving of Fourth and Fifth avenues during their last meeting.

City Manager Herb Llewellyn explained when the city annexed the Village, part of the plan and state law was they have to provide the same services to the area being annexed as the city has. The annexation plan told the citizens they would have those same services. The city has already paved Sixth and Boyer, as well as School Road and Third Avenue.

“One of the important points about this process is even though you initiate the process the people being impacted can petition out of the project so the project doesn’t get built if it is under certain criteria,” Llewellyn said. “We provide a petition to people.”

Commissioner David Chapin asked if there was any interest from people wanting this done and Llewellyn said there was.

Mayor Mike Fagg wanted to approach this from a different perspective. While Fagg agreed with having people petitioning out on arterial streets, when talking secondary streets, he thought it should be a positive instead of a negative.

“I would like the residents to carry a petition in favor instead of against,” he said. “I’d like to try to do it the positive way before the negative way if we could.”

Scott Rickard, assistant city engineer, said about two years ago they created a petition for one of the residents there, but the resident couldn’t find time to go around to get signatures so it didn’t go any further than that.

He said if a property owner wanted to talk about either project, he would be happy to talk with them.

Rickard went on to say they are looking at both projects at once to save money on them.

“We realized some cost savings when we did Third and School together by increasing the scope of the project,” Rickard said.

They are estimating this project be about $778,000 for construction, with the city-at-large portion being $130,000. He said the earliest the storm sewer work would begin was in the fall, then the streets would follow that.

But this action doesn’t mean the project is approved, rather it is just a starting point. Next there would be a public hearing date set and notices would be sent to the residents in the improvement district. Then the Commission would consider a resolution on the advisability of the project.

“I have been talking with several of the residents who live out there and they are all thrilled to have the streets done on Third and School,” Chapin said. “They felt it was a good investment in their home.”

Page 2 of 2 - Llewellyn will report back to the Commission at their next meeting on if anyone has picked up a petition. Then they will decide on the next step.